I was determined to leave today and was up at 0700hrs and had my “SSS” before going up to make myself a cup of coffee.

I woke up at 0600hrs in rediness to leave and just finished writing the journal when Doug came up asking if we were really going and why not stay one more night. We chatted for a while and around 0915hrs the fire wood he had ordered arrived, all one tonnes of it.

The sun was shining when we woke up today, thank goodness for that. We were about to give up on the weather esecially with 6C experienced yesterday. As forecast the temperature was a high 17C and we took the opportunity to unpack Tuah and give him a bit of a clean up. I took the liberty without asking Doug for permission to wash him as I noticed salt residue in the way of the mudguards.

It was a lazy day for us while Doug took us out for a Greek tapas lunch at one of the Tsipero restaurants. Tsipero is a Greek grape skin liquor which one mixes with water in the ratio of 3:1 and it is rather mild after the mix tasting something like anna seed. It was a great lunch and all the dishes were rather cheesy.

The Ionian King was docked at 0425 in Iougmenitsa and we were soon on our way on this beautiful highway leading from the docks towards Ioaninna. 30 kms from Ioannina the highway suddenly stopped and we were diverted to the old road as the highway had not been completed. The harrowing experience

At 1000hrs with mileage of 48701 we set off for Bari having decided that we needed to catch up for time although missing out on scicily. The weather wasn't too hot either, piddling down with rain all night long and so unsettled throughout most of the days. We hoped that the ferry to cross over to Albania or Greece would be readily available.

As a result of the failure to get the visas for Libya we were undecided what to do for the day. The weather was foul early on in the morning but it brightened up as we were having breakfast. By the time we got ourselves cleaned up the sun was out and it made our decision to visit the ruins for us.

As it was raining when we got up we leisurely had breakfast and Alison decided to put in some washing in the machine. We decided then that Vesuvio was the destination for the day. The road up to the mountain ws very narrow at times and most of the restaurants were either closed or looked abandoned and although it was a national park, litter was quite prominent.

Breakfast at the Park Hotel is something we looked forward to. Alison had the cheek of taking a few boiled eggs for lunch but was embarrassed to carry them openly and Adrian's toy bag became handy. Adrian however insisted that he carry the bag and I was praying that he didn't break the eggs on the way up to the room.

We had promised Luis that we will be in Siena by the time he finished work at 1700hrs and all exited about the prospect of meeting up with him and wondering what reward he expected from us. By 1030hrs we were all ready to check out and said our goodbyes to the fellow campers. Since we had a lot of time on our hands, we decided to take the trunk road to Grosseto and then on to Siena.

It was decided that we stayed for the day to give not only Adrian but ourselves a break. Alison decided to repack Tuah while I had to entertain Adrian in between periods when he was not with the other children, John’s and David’s.

We woke up with the sky looking more promising than the last 5 days and hurriedly had our breakfast as we had 1 hour of internet connection to utilize before leaving. With all the important messages sent, we were set to leave but

We had a sumptuous breakfast, of course only continental very unlike the Engish B+B. Daniella, our host was entertained by Adrian throughout breakfast. She advised us to go to Siena if we could as according to her it is worth visiting.

The rain had stopped by the time I woke up at 0700hrs. We decided to pack up and get the tent down before it rained again and had breakfast at the reception area. The receptionist didn't mind us eating our own food as they didn't have any to offer us except for coffee which we bought in anycase.

This morning I was awake really early, and had my shower before anyone woke up. I gathered it was about time I started writing my journal as I was two days behind. That I did although I haven't had  the opportunity to take any photos because of the weather.

After a good nights rest, at least for me as Alison was complaining about not being able to sleep due to Adrian being restless, and a simple breakfast, we left the hotel just after 0900hrs. There was hardly any traffic and we made good progress although I had to stop several times to pee due to the lasix tablet I had taken during breakfast.